Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak did not announce his immediate resignation from office, as many has expected, but ahead of his Thursday address on state television, President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials were hopeful for the best.

“We are watching history unfold,” Obama said early Thursday afternoon in Marquette, Mich. The White House, he said, was “following events in Egypt very closely” and promised that “America will continue to do everything we can to support an orderly and genuine transition to democracy in Egypt.”

The military met throughout the day Thursday without the president in the room — a sign that he was on the way out. Egypt’s information minister, meanwhile, denied that Mubarak was stepping down. When he spoke around 11 p.m. from the presidential palace, Mubarak said that he would not be leaving office but would relinquish some of his responsibilities to Vice President Omar Suleiman.

Obama’s trip to Northern Michigan University came just hours after Egyptian military officials said they had taken power of the country and that Mubarak would announce that he was stepping down. The visit to the battleground state was intended as the president’s latest attempt to focus on resurrecting the ailing U.S. economy, but was thrown off by the unanticipated crisis.

Even before Air Force One took off from Joint Base Andrews Thursday morning, a sense of urgency was in the air about the unfolding events. While en route to Michigan, the president was briefed by National Security Adviser Tom Donilon on a secure phone call, following up on an update Donilon gave Obama earlier in the morning in the Oval Office.

The president and his aides huddled around a large flat-screen television in the conference room on Air Force One, watching the developments on television — including CIA Director Leon Panetta’s description during a congressional hearing that Mubarak’s resignation Thursday was a “strong likelihood.”

Panetta made his remarks Thursday morning while testifying on Capitol Hill, saying the embattled Mubarak “may step down this evening” and relent to demands of protesters who have filled the streets for the past three weeks. Panetta warned that the Egyptian military will be an unknown factor as the political crisis of a close U.S. ally enters a new phase.

“Loyalty of the military is now something we have to pay attention to,” Panetta said in his testimony before the House Select Intelligence Committee. “It’s not always one that will respond to what a dictator may or may not want.”

When Panetta spoke late Thursday morning, he said the CIA had no definitive evidence on whether Mubarak would resign and give Suleiman control or that the military had seized power. A CIA spokesman said that Panetta based his statement on a possible outcome on news accounts, not from any definitive intelligence gathered by the agency.

The CIA director’s remarks, made during a previously scheduled hearing, came in response to a series of rapidly unfolding events in Cairo suggesting that Mubarak will give up the position he’s held for nearly 30 years. As the crisis in Egypt has worsened, Mubarak’s resignation has become the Obama administration’s chief policy objective there.

Gen. Hassan al-Roueini, military commander for the Cairo area, told thousands of protesters in central Tahrir Square, “All your demands will be met today,” according to The Associated Press. Protests in the square have been ongoing for 17 days.

Hossan Badrawi, a senior member of Egypt’s governing party, told the BBC he “hopes” Mubarak will choose to transfer power to Vice President Omar Suleiman, but protesters are said to be divided on whether they want the Mubarak ally to take charge or see power transferred to the military.

State TV footage showed Defense Minster Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi chairing a meeting of around two dozen top stern-faced army officers, seated around a table. Neither Mubarak — a former general and the military commander in chief — nor Suleiman was present.

The White House has struggled to keep pace with events — and present a clear, consistent message — during the fast-moving crisis. Last week, the president delivered a nuanced statement declaring Egyptian political reforms need to happen “now” with an orderly transfer of power, but he stopped short of calling for Mubarak’s immediate resignation.

The administration’s message became muddled, however, as the crisis wore on. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States must “support the transition process announced by the Egyptian government” headed by Suleiman, but an official description of a call between Vice President Joe Biden and Suleiman didn’t note any specific role for him.

“Vice President Biden urged that the transition produce immediate, irreversible progress that responds to the aspirations of the Egyptian people,” a White House readout said.

Mubarak’s anticipated resignation announcement comes a day after Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, expressed resentment in an interview with PBS that Washington was pushing for a more rapid political transition.

“For Americans to come and say, ‘Change is now,’ but already we are changing,” Aboul Gheit said. “So better understand the Egyptian sensitivities and better encourage the Egyptians to move forward and to do what is required. That is my advice to you.”

“If there’s one lesson from my more than two years here is that there have rarely been days that only one thing occupies the workspace or the imagination of all levels of the White House,” press secretary Robert Gibbs said. “Whether it is a crisis in Egypt, whether it is the investments that we have to undertake to rebuild our economy and compete to win the future, those all happen, again, simultaneously.”